Dater: The Devils have a great GM in Lou Lamoriello and have had some great players, but they again disappointed everyone in the league with dud crowds that were clearly outdone in passion by Kings fans. I wonder if New Jersey just isn't a good fit anymore for this league. They were 24th this season in attendance with an HOF goalie, great hockey management and some really high-paid stars. If they can't draw with this group, when will it ever happen?

MUIR: A friend in New York told me she got an email from Ticketmaster the day of Game 5 offering seats. I mean, how is that possible? This team gives you a chance to watch the greatest goalie of all-time (start your engines, AD), an edge-of-your-seat thriller in Kovalchuk, the All-American boy Zach Parise, and a really likable supporting cast...and the fans treat it like they're getting Joey Lawrence in the touring version of Death of a Salesman. The lack of support was embarrassing for the league and the franchise.

So, what does it mean for the future? You know Bettman will do contortions worthy of Cirque du Soleil to keep a team in place, but it might not matter. If Jeff Vanderbeek can't come up with a financial angel to buy out his partner and start paying down that debt (paging Kevin Smith!), I wouldn't bet on the Devils long term.

Seriously, I hate these two dipsh*ts....It is the same old stuff. I can never find an article that says positives about: the Devils fans, our organization, etc.

Sound off....

I made it about ten seconds into that before I wanted to shoot myself. Talk about boring material. I love hockey, but the two best teams in the league duking it out for the Cup, nah, that was lame. Idiots....

The Devils? Lousy support, both locally and nationally. They've been hockey's equivalent of ratings DDT since the Jacques Lemaire days and it's going to take more than a season of Pete DeBoer to change that perception. You pretty much had to be a die-hard to stay tuned after Game 1...and given that, the ratings were probably better than I expected.

The Devils have a great GM in Lou Lamoriello and have had some great players, but they again disappointed everyone in the league with dud crowds that were clearly outdone in passion by Kings fans. I wonder if New Jersey just isn't a good fit anymore for this league. They were 24th this season in attendance with an HOF goalie, great hockey management and some really high-paid stars. If they can't draw with this group, when will it ever hap

The man's name is Dater...I guess we shouldnt expect too much. But to outright lie, distort and make sh!t up is uncalled for. So much for journalistic integrity.

Our local ratings have been good. Our national ratings (except for the scf were record-setting and fantastic, yet this is conveniently not mentioned) and our playoff games sold out the minute they went on sale. On top of that, our fans were amazing in terms of vocal support! To say the kings fans outdid us in passion is a damn lie. I guess only the Devils are ever to blame for anything wrong in the NHL. Not the Kings, no way. Their fans are amazing

I read most of what they wrote about the Devs and it seems like they stopped watching the Finals after Game 1 (because they got bored) and didn't even get a good look at the Rock, instead reading the same old regular season attendance stats. Not that I'm getting my panties in a bunch over it, this article was simply weak. This is basically what I wrote about in the other thread. And don't call me a sore loser anymore. It's writers like these two that sound like losers, crying over ratings, fans and everything else.

I remember when in one of the conference finals games the Devs had a lead over the Rangers and folks on NBC spent the entire intermission talking about what the Rangers did wrong (NOT why the Devils are leading) and what they have to do to win the game. Cup final? Same thing. I mean, obviously at 3-0 and 3-1 the series was all about the Kings, but at 3-2, with the Devs with a shot at a historic come back... still no credit, 90% of the pre-game is about why LA will win.

Ya know no matter what happens, the narrative will never change. And it won't change because the media doesn't want it to. Its absolutely unbelievable that this type of vindictive bullsh!t from people who have no clue what they're talking about continues to be spewed about this franchise.

What a load of horse sh!t. Besides new jersey I've been to numerous stanley cup finals in several cities for 06 in carolina, 08 in detroit and pittsburgh, 09 in detroit and 11 in boston. I've been to playoff games in philly, msg, ottawa, st. louis, boston, washington and chicago.

Our fans this playoff year and finals easily rivaled all of those crowds. Our fans in the playoffs were amazing during this run. Can't believe someone could still write such nonsense.

OMG get over it! we weren't a "ratings dud", it was the Stanley Cup FVCKING FINALS! Who cares what "markets" the teams are from!? Seriously FvCK SI! If you can't watch whatever teams make the finals and still feel excited even though neither are original 6 or some huge market, then you aren't the "total hockey" fan you claim to be

Boston and Vancouver Hated each other? Maybe after a long playoff series but come on they maybe played each other 1 or 2x all season otherwise. where would the hate come from? One's east and one's west.

Boston and Vancouver Hated each other? Maybe after a long playoff series but come on they maybe played each other 1 or 2x all season otherwise. where would the hate come from? One's east and one's west.

Boston and Vancouver hated each other because Aaron Rome took out Horton for the series and Alex Burrows was also pulling cheap crap in Vancouver. Nothing close to that happened in this series, although I'm sure there was some animosity when Justin Williams was accusing Elias of flopping and Doughty called Volchenkov a ****ing p*ssy after he got hit with a stick and was on the ice bleeding.

Ya know no matter what happens, the narrative will never change. And it won't change because the media doesn't want it to. Its absolutely unbelievable that this type of vindictive bullsh!t from people who have no clue what they're talking about continues to be spewed about this franchise.

Also, we missed the playoffs last year, a decent turnoff to the casual fans who will pick up the attendance. Ignore that. If the attendance stays down next year, then you can maybe talk about it, but lay off now.

And if you want to complain about national appeal, whose fault is that? The league and NBC force the same 10 or so teams (original 6, Philly, Washington, Pittsburgh, maybe Vancouver and LA) down everybody's throat, no matter how good the hockey is in places like Jersey and Nashville, then get surprised when casual fans don't care about Jersey and try to blame us for making the game boring, even though we haven't been a true trapping team since the lockout, unlike the fvcking Rangers, whose brand of hockey is somehow so much more exciting.

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Sumus Legio
You don't turn this around in a couple shifts. Its going to take a little time, but I know the guys will come back. Because I can see it. -- Jacques Lemaire

Adrian Dater used to write for the Denver post or something. He's a lame ass Avs fan who wrote a book about the Wings/Avalanche feud. He doesn't know sh!t.

He still writes for them. I don't know who that Muir guy is, but Dater's been covering the Avsmonkeys since Day One... and apparently knows about as much little about hockey as everyone else in Denver.

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of the Devils' mascot, NJ Devil, and of all mascots far and wide.

IT IS VERY HARD TO WIN ONE STANLEY CUP, FORGET ABOUT THREE... and maybe it's high time some of you actually APPRECIATED THAT instead of treating it like it's some flipping birthright because for some random reason you rooted for the damn Devils!!!!!